Staff Spotlight: Jamie White
Jamie White is the secretary at Sunset Ridge School who considers it her purpose to help people. She spends each day making sure the middle school’s staff, students, and families have what they need.
“She is the face of Sunset Ridge. She's the first face that parents see, and a lot of times she's the first face that the students see and the staff,” said Sunset Ridge Principal Daniel Catlin. “She always greets people with a smile, is always in a good mood, and treats everybody with respect.”
White joined EHPS and the Sunset Ridge community six years ago as a tutor. When the secretary position opened up for the 2022-2023 school year, Catlin hoped she would be interested. Since then, she has excelled in the role.
“When this job was opened, I ran to her and said, ‘Are you interested?’ and she was. So, I was really excited for her and for me,” said Catlin. “I don't know how she does it. She’s able to multitask really well, prioritize what's important and what's not important and just handle things with a quiet calmness that is very rare.”
Learn more about Jamie White in the Q&A below.
What does a typical day look like for you in the main office?
White: A typical day looks like just kind of fielding questions from parents, putting in attendance, helping any building subs kind of get their schedule, know where they're supposed to go and supporting teachers.
The office can be a busy place. How do you handle all of the multitasking you have to do?
White: I like to call it the “Ministry of Interruptions” because it's lots of multitasking and lots interruptions. But I try to just take every moment to just think of it as an opportunity to bless someone, to help someone.
In your role, you interact with a lot of parents and families as well. What do you like about that part of the job?
White: I love that part of the job because again, it's just an opportunity to get to help them through whatever they're going through in my little way. Because a lot of times they are coming with concerns or complaints, and so I just see it as an opportunity to help them with whatever their problem is, get them to the right person so that they feel like they've been heard, they feel like they've been listened to, they feel like someone cares about their issue. And so, even if they're kind of coming at me the wrong way or seemingly irrational, I just try to look at it as, hey, it's their kid, they're upset, it's understandable. And how can I get them to a better place?
What do you like most about your role?
White: I feel like it branches into so many parts of the school and that I get to support students, I get to support teachers, I get to support families and the administrators and support staff. So I feel like I get to support everybody.
I just love helping people. That's probably my favorite thing in the universe. I feel like I have purpose if I'm helping people.
What do you like most about working at Sunset Ridge and in East Hartford?
White: It's just been nice to be able to be in a district where for the most part everyone's been so kind. Especially being new to this role last year, I needed a lot of help. I was able to reach out to the secretaries in other buildings and call them for things that I needed and things I didn't understand, so that was just phenomenal. It's just a really good group of people to work with.